The Conversion Factor
Today was a fun day in culinary school, but literally left me with a sugar-induced hangover. No joke. I barely made it home without falling over in my "drunken" state.
The bulk of today's class encompassed converting unhealthy sweets recipes into vegan and more health-supportive ones. There were some successes and some failures-I tried ALL of them. My partner and I had the pleasure of converting a recipe for Banana Cupcakes (which were really muffins if you ask me). I must say, the most difficult challenges we ran into were the level of sweetness provided by "alternative" sugars, such as maple crystals and coconut sugar, as well as the different consistency coconut oil provided to the baked good when we used it in place of good old butter. Below is the original recipe and the one we ended up creating. The muffins that occurred in the middle were mediocre, but the finished product was fantastic.
Banana Cupcakes: Yields 20-24 mini cupcakes
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed banana
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 and 1/2 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 banana, thinly sliced into rounds for topping
1. Preheat convection oven to 325 or conventional oven to 350. Line mini-muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mashed banana and mix thoroughly.
3. Sift dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Stir until incorporated. Add milk, vinegar and vanilla, stirring until combined.
4. Scoop mixture into muffin tins (use a small ice-cream scoop for easiest transfer), filling 2/3 of the way. Top each with a banana slice.
5. Bake in convection oven for 13 minutes or in conventional oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Vegan Banana Muffins: Yields 20-24 mini muffins
6 Tbsp coconut oil, solidified for 5 minutes in the refrigerator
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 cup mashed banana
7 Tbsp all-purpose flour
7 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 and 1/2 Tbsp almond milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 banana, thinly sliced into rounds
1. Preheat convection oven to 325 or conventional oven to 350. Line mini-muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Cream coconut oil and sugar until fluffy. Add mashed banana and mix thoroughly.
3. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon and add to banana mixture. Stir until incorporated. Add almond milk, vinegar and vanilla, stirring until combined.
4. Scoop mixture into muffin tins (use a small ice-cream scoop for easiest transfer), filling 2/3 of the way. Top each with a banana slice.
5. Bake in convection oven for 13 minutes or in conventional oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
If you wanted to make these into cupcakes, I would highly recommend frosting them with caramel cream cheese frosting, peanut butter frosting, or chocolate ganache. Top them with additional banana slices! For added fun and crunch, you could also try folding in 1/2 chopped toasted walnuts into the finished muffin batter.
Notes on converting baked goods:
Many alternative sweeteners are not as sweet as white sugar. The amount needed to adequately sweeten your product might need to be adjusted. They will also often change the level of moisture and cause the finished product to be much darker in color. Some more healthy sweeteners you might want to experiment with are maple crystals, coconut sugar, date sugar, brown rice syrup, honey, maple syrup and barley malt syrup.
Flours can be substituted easily with half whole wheat pastry flour, or a variety of other flours and proportions. Almond, hemp, oat and coconut milk substitute well for cow's milk, but will yield a slightly different texture-you might need to play with the proportions. Almond and soy milk were found to alter the product's consistency the least.
Butter and eggs are the most difficult items to replace. Solidified coconut oil will substitute for butter, just be sure to use 20% less of it. It, of course, will react differently with the other ingredients, as butter helps baked goods rise, as well as provides fat. The replacement for egg really depends on what the egg is doing to the recipe-if it is binding it and helping it to rise, standard egg replacer might be best; if it is providing moisture, mashed fruit or sweet potato is another option. The best advice I can give is to just try different things. Replace one ingredient at a time and watch how it changes a recipe. Just PLEASE try not to eat too many of the finished products during the process!
The bulk of today's class encompassed converting unhealthy sweets recipes into vegan and more health-supportive ones. There were some successes and some failures-I tried ALL of them. My partner and I had the pleasure of converting a recipe for Banana Cupcakes (which were really muffins if you ask me). I must say, the most difficult challenges we ran into were the level of sweetness provided by "alternative" sugars, such as maple crystals and coconut sugar, as well as the different consistency coconut oil provided to the baked good when we used it in place of good old butter. Below is the original recipe and the one we ended up creating. The muffins that occurred in the middle were mediocre, but the finished product was fantastic.Banana Cupcakes: Yields 20-24 mini cupcakes
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed banana
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 and 1/2 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 banana, thinly sliced into rounds for topping
1. Preheat convection oven to 325 or conventional oven to 350. Line mini-muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mashed banana and mix thoroughly.
3. Sift dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Stir until incorporated. Add milk, vinegar and vanilla, stirring until combined.
4. Scoop mixture into muffin tins (use a small ice-cream scoop for easiest transfer), filling 2/3 of the way. Top each with a banana slice.
5. Bake in convection oven for 13 minutes or in conventional oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Vegan Banana Muffins: Yields 20-24 mini muffins
6 Tbsp coconut oil, solidified for 5 minutes in the refrigerator
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 cup mashed banana
7 Tbsp all-purpose flour
7 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 and 1/2 Tbsp almond milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 banana, thinly sliced into rounds
1. Preheat convection oven to 325 or conventional oven to 350. Line mini-muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Cream coconut oil and sugar until fluffy. Add mashed banana and mix thoroughly.
3. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon and add to banana mixture. Stir until incorporated. Add almond milk, vinegar and vanilla, stirring until combined.
4. Scoop mixture into muffin tins (use a small ice-cream scoop for easiest transfer), filling 2/3 of the way. Top each with a banana slice.
5. Bake in convection oven for 13 minutes or in conventional oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
If you wanted to make these into cupcakes, I would highly recommend frosting them with caramel cream cheese frosting, peanut butter frosting, or chocolate ganache. Top them with additional banana slices! For added fun and crunch, you could also try folding in 1/2 chopped toasted walnuts into the finished muffin batter.
Notes on converting baked goods:Many alternative sweeteners are not as sweet as white sugar. The amount needed to adequately sweeten your product might need to be adjusted. They will also often change the level of moisture and cause the finished product to be much darker in color. Some more healthy sweeteners you might want to experiment with are maple crystals, coconut sugar, date sugar, brown rice syrup, honey, maple syrup and barley malt syrup.
Flours can be substituted easily with half whole wheat pastry flour, or a variety of other flours and proportions. Almond, hemp, oat and coconut milk substitute well for cow's milk, but will yield a slightly different texture-you might need to play with the proportions. Almond and soy milk were found to alter the product's consistency the least.
Butter and eggs are the most difficult items to replace. Solidified coconut oil will substitute for butter, just be sure to use 20% less of it. It, of course, will react differently with the other ingredients, as butter helps baked goods rise, as well as provides fat. The replacement for egg really depends on what the egg is doing to the recipe-if it is binding it and helping it to rise, standard egg replacer might be best; if it is providing moisture, mashed fruit or sweet potato is another option. The best advice I can give is to just try different things. Replace one ingredient at a time and watch how it changes a recipe. Just PLEASE try not to eat too many of the finished products during the process!
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